One-Shot: Defying Gravity
by WizMonCruWil
Summary: This was inspired by a Twitter thread. Rey has gone to the dark side, mad and wracked with grief over the loss of Ben. "She was regal, statuesque, her alabaster skin unblemished and a dark hood over her head. Striding down the throne steps, she was graceful and poised. As she drew close, the light of her twin sabers catching her face as they ignited, her smile was sickeningly sweet


**One-Shot: Defying Gravity**

Poe Dameron had never imagined that he would ever see Exogol again. And he certainly never imagined that he would actually touch down on the planet's surface.

Yet he and Finn were here, touching down on the dark, craggy world in the Unknown Regions... which was now the headquarters for someone they both once thought was a friend.

They had first become concerned when Rey did not come back from Tatooine, at least not in the timely way that they imagined. That concern had grown to deep worry when she one day cut off all communication with them.

When the first reports had trickled in across the galaxy, of a hooded woman with porcelain skin cutting down men, women, children and aliens without regard, from planet to planet, armed with twin lightsabers - one bile yellow, the other blood red - Finn and Poe had panicked.

The legend had spread quickly, of the woman known as the Skywalker. Wielding the weapon of both the Jedi and the Sith, she would swoop in on the _Millennium Falcon_ without warning, setting whole towns ablaze and slicing through human flesh as though it was paper. Sometimes, if a victim soiled themselves enough or wept particularly bitterly, or pleaded why she was doing this, the Skywalker would let them live, but not before mournfully telling the tale of how she had lost her sweetheart, a young man named Ben Solo. The Emperor had tormented him and his entire family for generations, had made them suffer. And in taking Ben away from her, she too suffered. So she vowed that the galaxy must suffer as greatly as she did, for what it had done to her, to Ben and his family.

Retreating to Exogol, the Skywalker had made that planet her base of operations, where she would periodically rest before continuing on her reign of terror. She did not force the galaxy into submission with Death Stars and Star Destroyers and Sith magic - that was not her style. She preferred instead to be a one-woman killing machine, marching through villages, planets and systems on a scorched-earth campaign before disappearing like a guerrilla fighter into the night and letting the terror follow. Let her legend grew.

If anyone was fortunate enough to find her on Exogol, much less make it to the planet in one piece, they would go to her and plead with her to stop the madness. A number of people had gone in... but nobody ever came out.

Poe and Finn hoped, that by some act of mercy or the grace of the Force, they would be the first to come out... and bring her with them, preferably alive and preferably not in chains.

Exiting their two-person Y-Wing, the pilot and former Stormtrooper warily approached the Sith temple, angry lighting blazing across the skies. Dark, imposing statues of Sith past seemed to glare down their sculpted noses at the two mortals as they passed, entering the black palace.

In the entrance hall, before the throne room, they were met by a silver protocol droid, weak-chinned and feeble and looking like it might defecate itself with its own oil at any moment. Poe recognized the droid; he had been in communication with her, requesting an audience with the Empress.

"Her Imperial Majesty will see you now," the droid bowed and led the men into the throne room. At the end of the majestic hall, a craggy throne with sharp and jagged edges protruding out loomed ominously.

The silver droid bowed to the throne, its occupant cloaked in shadow. "Your Empress, my most adored lady, the Generals Poe Dameron and Finn!"

There was a rustle as the figure on the throne stood and stepped into the little dim light that was left in this place.

She was regal, statuesque, her alabaster skin unblemished and a dark hood over her head. Striding down the throne steps, she was graceful and poised. As she drew close, the light of her twin sabers catching her face as they ignited, her smile was sickeningly sweet.

"Poe! Finny!" Rey's voice chirped like a bird's, almost too high, and Finn squirmed. "What a _lovely_ surprise!" Her dulcet tones dripped with poisoned honey. Drifting closer so that she was right in front of them, Rey circled the men, her smirk palpable, appraising them like cattle. Halting in front of the darker-skinned man, Rey rested her hand on Finn's chest, her fingers brushing along his pectorals. "It would make for a nice change to leave visitors - especially you two - alive. If it weren't for our... sentimental history, I wouldn't be considering that much. And besides..." Her other hand reached out to caress Poe's face, her smile seductive. "Such _handsome_ men like yourselves would make for... pleasant concubines." She trilled out a tiny laugh, her face twittering.

Finn was unsure how he was managing to not shake with horror. This bewitchingly beautiful woman could _not_ be Rey. Not _his_ Rey - the one who had whacked him in the face when they first met and growled insistently that he stop taking her hand. Sensing his distress, Rey cocked her head at him. Grinning so that her pearly teeth glistened, she tsked chidingly.

"Now, now, Finny, don't be shy..." and locking her twin sabers at a hinge, the hilts snapped together into a double-blade, like some kind of weird Nunchuk. "I won't bite." Leaning in close to his face, she bit at the air, flirtatiously just missing his skin before turning and gliding languidly away back towards her throne. Finn felt the traitorous space between his legs tighten uncomfortably. Beside him, Poe cleared his throat.

Rey turned back softly, regarding the pilot with something almost resembling gentleness. "General Dameron? Is there something you wanted to say?"

Poe coughed again before gathering his voice. "Rey..." and his tone was beseeching. "Enough of this madness. Please, Rey, come home... we miss you."

Throwing back her head, Rey laughed again, the sound jingling like bells. "I _am_ home."

"This can't be what you want!" Finn blasted out suddenly. "This isn't who you are!"

Rey bristled at this, her face collapsing into a glower, compelling her protocol droid to step forward. "You dare to address Your Empress in this way...?!"

But Rey silenced the droid with a wave of her hand. Turning back to Finn, she frowned again, displeased.

"And why shouldn't this be who I am? I am the granddaughter of the Emperor, after all. I was a naive little girl to resist his siren song, his plans for me." She sagged a little bit, and for the first time she appeared vulnerable as she whispered wistfully. "At least in power, I can know peace..."

"You're lying to yourself," Finn once again spoke boldly, and Rey started at this. "Tearing up whole star systems is not a healthy way to address your grief." Taking a breath, Finn pressed on. "Look: I'm sorry that Ben died -"

At this, Rey stiffened, baring her teeth like a feral cat, hissing, spitting. "_Don't_ say his name! Do not _ever_ mention that name to me! Only _I_ can speak it aloud!"

"...but he isn't coming back!" Finn hurled forward. "Rey, why torture all of us and yourself in this way? Why are you doing this?"

"_Why_?" Rey screeched, in a pitch so high, only bats would be able to hear it. "I lost the love of my life! Do you know what that's like? _Do you_?!" She Force leapt into Finn's space, her yellow and red blades crackling as she raised them high, hovering them quite close to Finn's neck. A few more inches and she could easily render his head from his shoulders.

In an incredible show of bravery, Finn did not avert his gaze, his expression heartbroken. "Yes," he sighed firmly.

She peered at him for a moment, reaching out until she could sense the depth of his love for the woman she had once been. Could feel even the raging lust for the woman she had become, though Finn desperately tried to hide this well. Sneering at him, she snorted.

"Liar," she jeered. Abruptly shutting the twin blades off and clipping them to her belt, she crossed wordlessly to a side window, gazing out brokenly through the dark panes.

"You're more than just a liar, Finny," she sighed sadly, resignedly. "You and Poe... you're nice. You're not good, you're not bad, you're just _nice_. I'm not good, I'm not bad, I'm just _right_. I'm the Empress - you're the universe..." Spinning back around to them both with a snap, her face brightened ghoulishly, breathless with anticipation. "But I have a plan... oh, yes, I have a plan... The Father has heard my cries and is calling me to Mortis. He is in need of a Daughter... a dark Daughter to sit at his right hand... and perhaps, someday, the man I love, my Ben Solo dearest, will be his Light Son... I will flee from this galaxy that robbed me of my precious Ben, and from on high I will torment it, becoming more powerful than either of you naive fools can possibly imagine!"

With that, Rey raised both her hands. Blue lightning shot out of them, rupturing the buttresses, holding up the high ceiling, so that stone cascaded around them. Poe and Finn yelled as they staggered and stumbled out of the way.

"Little desert flower..." Finn cried to Rey warningly. Beside him, Poe was holding a comlink and into it, he was screaming: "JEDI NOT DOWN! I REPEAT: JEDI NOT DOWN! SHE IS ON THE MOVE! ALL UNITS, SWOOP IN - NOW!"

Slowly, Rey began to rise into the air, her black cloaks billowing out around her. Cackling, she screeched in mad triumph:

"I will defy gravity, away from this bunch and the gloom and the doom! I will defy gravity, and fulfill my destiny, and soon I'll match Vader and Grandaddy in renown!" Growling, she glared down at Poe, Finn and the hundreds of ground troops who had swarmed onto Exogol and into the throne room, her hands poised and ready to rain down hellfire. "And nobody, without just cause, no Jedi that there is or was is ever gonna bring ME down!"

The blue lightning surged from Rey's fingertips as, from above, a beam of black light encased her floating body and began carrying her up, up, up further still.

Against the hollowing wind, Finn bellowed in one final goodbye to his friend: "I hope you're happy..."

Blasters trained, the Resistance fighters rushed closer, voices shouting to one another. "Look at her! She's wicked - get her!" Rey just screamed with derisive laughter, throwing out her lightning hands and throwing the Resistance troops back as though they were ninepins.

The twister picked up, the gales blowing Poe's hair back as he watched Rey with an all-at once determined and defeated glare. Sadly aware that the Rey he had known was well and truly dead, he declared, "No one mourns the wicked, so we've got to bring her down!"

The black beam surged in intensity, Rey staring up into it with joyous relief and excitement as she was called home. She let out a scream of victory, the lightning coursing from her fingertips and on high. "YES!"

There was a blinding flash, and then... she was gone. Gone to become the Dark Daughter of Mortis and fulfill her destiny... and seal the galaxy in its vindictive fate at her hands.


End file.
